Walnut Sweet BreadThe Romanian traditional cake for all holidays

Preparation time: 30 minutes  Cook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients for 3 loaves

16 g dry yeast or 60 g fresh yeast

250 g chopped or ground walnuts

1 kg flour

300 g white sugar

5 eggs

500 ml milk

250 g melted butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

½ cup raisins

50 ml sunflower oil

Preparation instructions

In a sauce pan pour the milk, sugar, and butter and heat over medium heat. Don’t boil them, just melt the butter and dissolve the sugar.

 

To activate your yeast, add 2 tablespoons of warm milk, 1

tablespoon sugar and 2 tablespoons flour to a bowl. Mix them well together

then add your fresh yeast or 2 packages of dry kind (16 g). Let it sit

for about 10 minutes.

Go back to the milk mixture; add the egg yolks and mix. Save the egg whites for the filling. Pour the flour into the bowl of your

mixer and add milk mixture, yeast mixture and raisins. Mix everything for about 5 minutes.

The dough will be quite sticky so don’t panic.  

 When it is well incorporated, take the dough, oil it a little bit so it doesn’t crack and

place it inside a big bowl to rest and rise. Cover with a cloth or some plastic wrap and wait until it doubles in size, that’s about two

hours or so.

While you wait for dough to rise, it is time to get the filling ready. In a bowl

add the walnuts, sugar and cocoa powder then mix them.

Next step is egg whites. This is easy actually, so use a mixer and beat them

until stiff. Add the walnut mixture to the egg whites and mix them well

together.

Then grab the dough and cut it into three equal pieces. Roll out each piece into a long rectangle, the width should

be the width of your pan.

Use one third of the filling over the rolled out dough, and spread it evenly.

Roll up the dough.

Place the roll seam face down into a well oiled or buttered bread pan. Let them double in size again for about 45 minutes. Brush them with

egg wash and sprinkle some sugar over them, if you really want.

Preheat the oven to 180° C and bake them for 35 to 45 minutes, depending on size. Do not

open the oven in the first 25 minutes. If, in the end, they seem to begin to burn, you can lower the heat. Remove from oven and let

cakes in forms 10 minutes more.

 

And this is the result!!!